WARNING- THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Sarah and Asmodeus, a love story that spans beyond the boundaries of heaven and hell.
Whilst we are given a brief account of their relationship through their children, (Dominic, Sophia and Vincent), their true narrative has been a part of Jewish scripture since roughly -300BC. The book of Tobit is a work describing how God tests the faithful and protects the Jewish community. This is a part three on understanding Hell in Stephanie Hudson’s books and the first of two parts about Asmodeus. Today we will specifically be looking at some Jewish texts which have fables about Asmodeus.
The name Asmodeus, or Asmodai derives from an old Iranian language called Avestan meaning ‘wrath demon’, written as ‘aesma-daeva’. The Book of Tobit was one of the first instances in scripture to have a similar derivation of the name ‘Asmodaios’. Other jewish texts such as the Testament of Solomon (which I will get on to shortly) relates the name to Aeshma, in a text about the influence of Persian beliefs on Judaism and that mythology and folklore have some common connections. This therefore, excitingly, further ties Dominic as Arsaces and Asmodeus in roughly the same place of origin.
The Book of Tobit tells of Asmodeus’ relationship with Sarah, a human who lived in Ecbatana, an ancient city and the first capital in Iranian history. Asmodeus slays seven successive husbands on their wedding nights, with Sarah unable to consummate the marriages. Then, the eponymous Tobit is next in line to wed Sarah. God sends the archangel Raphael down to assist Sarah. Raphael says that the heart and the liver from fish from the Tigris (a river in Baghdad and Turkey) can ward off demons and it drives Asmodeus out. Sarah and Tobias marry.
Outside of Sarah and Asmodeus’ story, some wild things happen which I think are particularly notable, including the fact that Tobit shortly beforehand has some birds defecate in his eyes. The doctors put ointment in his eyes and render him blind. The gall bladder of the same fish can cure blindness. (and according to the scripture it did!)
Asmodeus’ immortal rivalry with Raphael is strengthened in the Testament of Solomon. It is a pseudepigrapha, which is a long word for a book that falsely claims it is written by (in this case) King Solomon. Written around the 1st century AD, no meaningful texts are known about the book until the middle ages. Inscribed in Greek, the text describes how Solomon, a monarch of ancient Israel, built his temple by commanding demons by means of a magical ring. Asmodeus is one of the demons he summons and is associated strongly with sexuality. Here, Asmodeus is known for “plotting against the newly wedded” and “estranging virgins”. Solomon learnt that the arch-angel Raphael is the one who could render Asmodeus innocuous (by reading the Book of Tobit). With this knowledge, he forced Asmodeus to help build his temple.
It’s also worth mentioning that another Jewish text, the Haggadah, mentions Ashmedai, which many scholars and historians point out connections to Asmodeus. Written around 170AD, it discusses the events around the Book of Exodus and how God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. In the text, as Solomon was building his temple, he was struggling with how to bring the blocks of marble into shape, as according to some law he could not use iron tools. The wise men said that Ashmedai, the King of the Demons, could help him find the location of worms called the ‘shamir’ that could cut through rock. The worms were located on a mountain with a well that Asmodeus drank from and he closed it up daily with a large rock.
Solomon sent his servant Beniah to capture and chain Ashmedai, which he did. With some hesitation, the stubborn Ashmedai told Solomon how to find the worms. Ashmedai then stayed with Solomon until the temple was built. He then tricked Solomon into giving him the ring, which he then flung Solomon 400 parasangs, a unit of measurement that each was either 4.8 or 5.6KM. Ashmedai ruled as king until he returned with another magical ring and then the demon fled. Perhaps this is how Asmodeus is later associated as a king of demons.
But the question remains, how did Asmodeus get the title, the King of Lust?
Heading into the middle ages, we begin to see the deception, the lust and the charm of Asmodeus. We jump ahead now to 1486, to the Malleus Maleficarum. (translated as the hammer of witches) Written by Catholic Clergyman Heinrich Kramer, he created a compendium of demons, alongside presenting his own views condemning disbelief in demonology as heresy and the means of torturing and prosecuting witches with death as the ultimate punishment. Kramer was not a very nice guy, but was one of the first to associate Asmodeus as a demon of lust. (We’ve had associations with sex before but nothing quite this debaucherous) He had 72 legions under his command and was one of the Kings of hell under Lucifer. Asmodeus incites gambling, and is an overseer of all the gambling houses in Hell.
Demonologists at this time also considered the month of November to be the most that the Asmodeus’ power was the strongest, but others would argue his zodiac sign was Aquarias. In France, a convent of nuns were put on trail in 1634 after claiming they had been possessed by demons, including Asmodeus. Whilst he was not mentioned in the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, Johannes Weyer has claimed that Asmodeus is the banker at the baccarat table in Hell.
In 1641, a Spanish novelist called Luis Veles de Guevarra published a satirical novel called El Diablo Cojuelo, in which Asmodeus takes the protagonist on a wander, removing the rooftops on houses to reveal the secrets of people’s private lives. Asmodeus here was depicted as having a clawed foot of a rooster.
The Dictionnaire Infernal, another compendium (this time with illustrations) written by occultist Jaques Collin de Plancy, follows this depiction with a ‘cock’ leg, serpent tail and three heads. One head was a man spitting fire, whilst the other two were a sheeps and bull’s head respectively. He was riding a lion with dragon wings. Both Kramer and de Plancy associated Asmodeus with revenge or as ‘the king of revenge’. The lesser key of solomon has a similar description of Asodeus but also mentions that he governs 72 legions of lesser spirits.
Additionally, Asmodeus was mentioned in the Arabian Nights, in the “Tale of the City of Brass”, as the demon was trapped in a stone in the desert. In a different tale, Asmodeus tells a young prince about the seven layers of hell and the punisher angels who masturbate and reproduce snakes and scorpions. (pretty wild!)
Today, Asmodeus has been mentioned in popular culture in the Paranormal Activity series, (legendary) TV show Supernatural and even in Dungeons and Dragons. Whilst he has claimed his Sarah in a tale of deception- rather than love -in our early Jewish texts, there is little mention of her in the modern world. Asmodeus’ association with lust, lechery and debauchery seem to take precedent today but his character is a lot more complex. He is depraved, power hungry and seemingly quite lonely as he rules his kingdom on his own. When Stephanie writes Sarah and Asmodeus’ story- and there will be quite the story to tell- it will be exciting to see a writer embody his feelings, rather than be judged on how mortals perceive his actions.
This is the third part of a series about how Stephanie Hudson creates Hell in her books. If you want to read more on the subject, the Afterlife Saga is free on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited here.